POL00254961
POL00254961
womblebonddickinson.com WOMBLE
BOND
DICKINSON
14 May 2018 Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP
Oceana House
39-49 Commercial Road
Mr J Hartley Southampton
Freeths LLP
Floor 3, 100 Wellington Street
Leeds
LS1 SLT
Fourth Letter
Our ref.
F AP6/DJP2/364065.1369
By email only Your ref:
‘SXH/1684/2113618/1/MA,
Dear Sirs
Post Office Group Litigation
Expert Evidence
We write further to our third letter dated 17 April 2018 and our letter dated 25 April 2018, both of which
relate to paragraph 11 of the Third CMC Order. So far as is relevant for current purposes, paragraph 11
provides that the parties’ solicitors and IT experts are to meet and attempt to agree the scope of any
further information or documents required about the Horizon system and a process for inspecting the
Horizon system (if needed).
Following our meeting on 11 April, on 20 April Mr Coyne provided an enquiries document on an open
basis. As we explained in our letter dated 25 April, we had been expecting Mr Coyne's document to
specify the "information, documents and access that he will require in order to properly investigate the
issues to enable him to form his expert opinion". His document did not do this.
Mr Coyne and Dr Worden are in the process of discussing Mr Coyne's desired lines of enquiry on a
without prejudice basis. We think it is constructive for the experts to do this. Our hope is that they will
achieve sufficient consensus on particular lines of inquiry to enable the parties, through their solicitors, to
agree specific requests for information and for disclosure as contemplated by para 11. As soon as they
have completed their current discussions (or as their discussions progress if they are able to prioritise
certain items), we look forward to receiving suitable requests from you which we can hopefully agree. In
this regard we note the Managing Judge's comment at the CMC on 1 February that such requests have
“to be narrowly defined, properly considered requests [and] should be capable of being drafted".
In the meantime, we should be able to make some progress while the experts’ discussions are ongoing.
We should be grateful if you could respond to the following points raised in our 17 April 2018 letter:
e Do you agree to use CPR 35.9 rather than interviewing witnesses?
e Does Mr Coyne want to inspect the PEAK system?
« Have you made any progress in speaking to your clients in order to narrow any lines of enquiry?
We are becoming concerned that the deadlines proposed in our letter are moving backwards as our
client cannot begin the process of collating information and documents/arranging inspections until the
scope of those matters are properly defined. Inevitably, the amount of work that can be done will be
limited by the time available between matters being agreed and the deadline for your clients' expert
report.
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POL00254961
POL00254961
womblebonddickinson.com
WOMBLE
BOND
DICKINSON
We await hearing from you.
Yours faithfully
Monit, Borel Dickson (te) LLE
J
Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP.
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